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ELEMENTS OF ELOCUTION 



JAMES PLAISTED WEBBER 



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Book. .Wj , 
Copyright N°_ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 






ELEMENTS OF ELOCUTION 

FOR CLASSES IN DECLAMATION 



JAMES PLAISTED WEBBER, M.A. 

INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH IN THE PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY 



SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 



PRIVATELY PRINTED 

For use in The Phillips Exeter Academy 



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LIBRARY of OONGRCSS 
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DEC 23 190? 

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COPY B. 



Copyright, 1907 
By James Plaisted Webber 






CONTENTS 



* 



Elements of Elocution 

Breathing 

Articulation . 

Pronunciation 

Utterance 

Qualities of Voice 

Stress 

Volume 

Time 

Inflection 
Selections for Practice .... 

Massachusetts and South Carolina, Webster 

Toussaint L/Ouverture, Phillips 

Reply to Walpole, Pitt .... 

Regulus to the Carthaginians, Kellogg 

Henry V at Harfleur, Shakespeare . 

The Black Horse and His Rider, Lippard 

Rienzi to the Romans, Mitford 

Reply to Mr. Corry, Grattan . 

Opportunity, Sill ..... 

Victor of Marengo, Anonymous 

Cato's Soliloquy on Immortality, Addison 

The American Fisheries, Bu?-ke 

The Man Who Wears the Button, Thurston 

Character of Charles I, Macaulay . 

A Vision of War, Ingersoll 

The Army of the Potomac, Depew . 

Defense before Agrippa, Saint Paul 

A Plea for Force, Thurston 

At the Tomb of Napoleon, Ingersoll 

Hamlet's Instruction to the Players, Shakespeare 



PREFACE 

This pamphlet is intended for schoolboys. The technical 
part, therefore, ignores many elements of elocution of import- 
ance to advanced students, especially to students of dramatic 
expression, such as suppressed force, median stress, and stress 
of tremor; but those most often occurring in forensic oratory 
are defined briefly and illustrated. There is, however, no at- 
tempt to offer a substitute for viva voce teaching. No printed 
directions, however elaborate, of the physical means by which 
the vocal factors are produced, can teach orotund quality of 
voice, initial stress, or circumflex inflection. 

The selections for practice have been chosen and, in most 
cases, abbreviated, to meet a distinct need in a particular 
school, where from fifteen to twenty pupils are expected to speak 
in one hour. " A short declamation ", says Prof. Espenshade 
in the introduction to his " Forensic Declamations", ".will, it is 
believed, form quite as valuable an exercise in effective speak- 
ing as a long one ; the lengthy declamation, on the other 
hand, very often degenerates into a merely mechanical exer- 
cise of the memory." 

Acknowledgments are due to several publishers, whose 
names will be found in the foot-notes, for permission to reprint 
from their works; to Prof. James A. Tufts, of The Phillips Ex- 
eter Academy, for contributing the greater part of the exercise 
in pronunciation on pages 11-12 and for various helpful sug- 
gestions; and to F. F. Mackay, Director of The National Con- 
servatory of Dramatic Art, New York City, whose clear and 
scientific treatment of the technique of speech has served as the 
basis of the following pages. 

The Phillips Exeter Academy, 
Exeter, N. H., November, 1907. 



ELEMENTS OF ELOCUTION FOR 
CLASSES IN DECLAMATION 

ELOCUTION is the art of vocal expression in formal speech. 

DECLAMATION, as distinguished from reading and oratory, is 
that branch of the art of formal speech which deals with the 
delivery of memorized compositions. 

The first essential of an effective declamation, therefore, is a 
thorough memorizing of the selection. Only when the recol- 
lection of the lines has become a mechanical process requiring 
as little conscious effort as the playing of the scale by a music- 
ian, can the declaimer do either the author or himself full jus- 
tice. To acquire such a mastery, the average untrained mind 
demands not only an amount of time, but also a lapse of time. 
Two hours distributed in periods of twenty minutes through six 
days will, as a rule, prove more effective than four solid hours 
devoted to study immediately before the recitation. 

It should be noted that the ability to recite the selection 
by oneself in the privacy of the study is no certain warrant 
of mastery. Different conditions — the larger room with its 
strange effect on the sound of the voice, the upturned faces, 
the opening of a door, the entrance of a late comer, the un- 
expected self-consciousness — all tend to divert the mind from 
the work in hand, to divide attention, to break down memory. 
Not until the declaimer has proved to himself that he can re- 
call the lines readily amid various circumstances — in the family 
circle, before a few schoolmates in his study, to himself as he 
hurries along the street — can he go to the platform in perfect 
confidence. 

Clara Morris, writing of her advancement over two of her 

early associates, says : " There was no luck about it 

When they studied their parts they were contented if they 



b BREATHING 

could repeat their lines perfectly in the quiet of their rooms, 
and made no allowance for possible accidents or annoyances 
with power to confuse the mind and so cause loss of memory 
and ensuing shame. But I . . . . would not trust even my 
own memory without first taking every possible precaution. 
Therefore the repeating of my lines correctly in my room was 
but the beginning of my study of them. In crossing the 
crowded street I suddenly demanded of myself my lines. At 
the table, when all were chatting, I again made sudden demand 
for the same. If on either occasion my heart gave a jump and 
my memory failed to present the exact word, I knew I was 
not yet perfect, and I would repeat those lines until, had the 
very roof blown off the theatre at night, I should not have 
missed one." 



BREATHING 

He who would speak in public should master the instru- 
ment at his disposal, the organs which produce vocality. 
Otherwise, while he may naturally, i. e. without training, 
speak with some degree of power, his delivery as com- 
pared with that of those who possess technique will be like 
that of the amateur carpenter as compared with that of the 
master workman, or like the piano playing of one who per- 
forms by ear as compared with that of the trained musician. 

Let us consider the factor without which there would 
be no vocality. Vocal bands may be at a tension to produce 
a given number of vibrations ; lip and tongue and jaw may be 
in position to articulate a given sound ; but, without breath, 
there will be no sound. Attempts to speak with insufficient 
amount of air in the lungs produce much the same effect as 
comes from the steamboat whistle when the man in the pilot- 
house does not pull the whistle-cord far enough to let a proper 



BREATHING 



quantity of steam into the valve; or as comes from the organ 
when the blow-boy has forgotten to pump. 

There are various ways of taking air into the lungs. The most 
correct method is by ABDOMINAL BREATHING. By sitting down 
and placing the hands upon the body just below the pit of the 
stomach, one will notice a rising and falling or, speaking more 
exactly, an outward and an inward movement of the abdominal 
wall. At each inspiration the wall comes forward ; at each 
expiration it recedes. At the forward movement of the ab- 
dominal wall, the diaphragm, a large involuntary muscle 
separating the lungs (the air-chamber) from the viscera, tends to 
straighten out, thus increasing the capacity of the air-chamber; 
and at each inward movement of the abdominal wall, the dia- 
phragm tends to bulge upward, thus compressing the size of 
the air-chamber and tending to drive the air therein upward 
and outward. 

So, too, by placing the fingers above the hips and pressing 
firmly upon the so-called " floating ribs", one may note, by 
breathing deeply enough, that the inhalation not only pushes 
forward the abdominal wall but also pushes outward and slightly 
upward these floating ribs. At the exhalation they, too, close 
in upon the air-chamber and add their power toward driving 
the air from the lungs. The more deeply one inhales, that is, 
the farther forward one extends the abdominal wall and the 
farther outward and upward one pushes the floating ribs, the 
greater will be one's breathing capacity; and the greater the 
reaction of these parts of the body upon the air-chamber, the 
greater will be the force with which the air will be driven against 
the vocal bands. 

The whole process is similar to that of the mechanism of the 
little images of birds and beasts found in the toy-shops. A 
pedestal formed of a tiny air-chamber, with a reed over the 
single opening, has a base which moves upward and downward, 
and sides which move outward and inward. The upward 



8 ARTICULATION 

movement of this base (the toy's diaphragm) and the inward 
movement of the sides, (the floating ribs) forcing the air from 
the air-chamber (the lungs) over the reed (the vocal bands) 
produce a squeak, the intensity of which will depend upon the 
amount of air previously gathered in the little air-chamber and 
upon the force of the movement of the base and sides. 



ARTICULATION 

ARTICULATION is the utterance of the elementary sounds of 
a language. 

TABLE OF ELEMENTARY SOUNDS l 



a as 


in ale 


o 


as in old 


a ' 




arm 





" lose 


a ' 




all 





" hot 


a ( 




an 


u 


" tube 


e 




eve 


u 


" up 


e 




end 


u 


" full 


i " 




ile 


ou 


" out 


i " 




in 


oi 


" oil 


b as 


in 


babe 


ng 


as in song 


d " 




did 


z 


" zone 


g " 




gag 


z 


" azure 


1 




lull 


y 


" yet 


m " 




maim 


w 


" woe 


n 




nun 


th 


" then 


r 




star 


V 


" valve 


r 




roll 


J 


" j°y 


p as 


in 


pipe 


s 


as in sin 


t 




tent 


sh 


" shade 


k " 




kick 


h 


" hut 


f 




fame 


wh 


" what 


th " 




thin 


ch 


" church 



1 From Vocal Gymnastics by F. F. Mackay, New York City. 



ARTICULATION 9 

EXERCISES IN ARTICULATION x 

i. Be bold, be bold; be not too bold. 

2. Hope on, hope ever. 
(Not, Ho pon, ho pever.) 

3. Mile-stones mark the march of time. 

(Not, Mile-stone smark the mar chof time.) 

4. Well, Washington was wiser than Webster. 

5. Valiant deeds for vengeance or revenge. 
(Not, Vallian deeds for venjan sor revenge.) 

6. A faithful life lifts the father's fortunes. 

(Not, tiffs.) 

7. The band blared sadly, Dan declared. 

(Not, the ban blared.) 

8. Tie taut the tent and test it. 

(Not, Tes tit.) 

9. To-morrow try to talk truly and truthfully. 

10. Breathe with care ; do not mouth thy words. 
(Not, Bree thwith care ; do ?iot mow thy words.) 

11. "Your mirth hath death in it," quoth the Goth. 
(Not, Your mir thath death in it, quo the Goth.) 

12. Cease sighing, since sighs seldom secure success. 
(Not, See sighing, sin sighs eldom secure success.) 

13. Each daisy teaches a lesson. Abuse them not. 
(Not, teachy sa lesson.) 

14. In Elysium are treasures without measure. 

15. Shun selfish spirits who push shamelessly. 
(Not. Shun selfy shpirits who push aimlessly.) 

16. Gems and jewels just from japan. 

17. The chief cheerfully chose the choicest chair. 
(Not, choices chair.) 

1 From " Reading and Speaking. Familiar Talks to those who would speak 
well in public with a thorough presentation of Mandeville's system of sentential de- 
livery. " by B. G. Smith. By permission of the publishers, D. C. Heath and Com- 
pany, Boston. 



1 ARTICULATION 

1 8. Go get the gun and give the goose a shot. 

19. " Kill the King ! " the crank cried crossly. 

20. Youthful Yankee yacht squared the yards. 

21. Now none kneel when the bell knells. 

22. The singing grew fainter, the song dying away. 

23. They fell like leaves and fill long lists. 

24. The car was adorned with corn and drawn by four horses. 
(Not, The cah was adawned with cawn, and drawn by fo' 

hosses.) 

THE SIEGE OF BELGRADE l 

(Alliterative use of the Elements) 

An Austrian army, awfully arrayed, 

Boldly, by battery, besieged Belgrade ; 

Cossack commanders cannonading come — 

Dealing destruction's devastating doom ; 

Every endeavor, engineers essay, 

For fame, for fortune, fighting furious fray ! 

Generals 'gainst generals grapple, grasping good. 

How honors Heaven heroic hardihood ! 

Infuriate, indiscriminate in ill, 

Kindred kill kinsmen, kinsmen kindred kill ! 

Labor low levels loftiest, longest lines — 

Men march 'mid mounds, 'mid moles, 'mid murderous mines ; 

Now noisy, noxious, noticed nought 

Of outward obstacles opposing ought. 

Poor patriots, partly purchased, partly pressed ; 

Quite quaking, quickly quarter, quarter quest, 

Reason returns, religious right redounds, 

Suwarrow stops such sanguinary sounds. 

Truce to thee, Turkey, triumph to thy train ! 

Unjust, unwise, unmerciful Ukraine ! 

1 From "Vocal Culture" by Murdock-Russell, published by Houghton, Mifflin 
and Company, Boston. 



PRONUNCIATION 



11 



Vanish vain victory, vanish victory vain ! 

Why wish ye warfare? Wherefore welcome were 

Xerxes, Ximenes, Xanthus, Xaviere? 

Yield, ye youths ! ye yeomen, yield your yell ! 

Zeno's, Zapater's, Zoroaster's zeal, 

And all attracting, arms against acts appeal. 



PRONUNCIATION 

PRONUNCIATION consists of the correct articulation of the 
component sounds of a word with the addition, in the case of 
words of more than one syllable, of accent. 



EXERCISE IN PRONUNCIATION 



Accepts 

Acts 

Ablative 

Acclimate 

Address 

Again 

Alias 

Ally 

Apparatus 

Auxiliary 

Ay, or Aye (yes) 

Aye (always) 

Bade 

Been 

Boasts 

Boat 

Bronchitis 

Civilization 

Coat 

Consul 



Council 

Counsel 

Conversant 

Data 

Deficit 

Despicable 

Discourse 

Disputable 

Duty 

Enervate 

Envelop 

Envelope 

Exponent 

Exquisite 

Extant 

Extraordinary 

Except 

Finance 

Forehead 

God 



Gold 

Gone 

Government 

Gratis 

Grimace 

Harass 

Haunt 

Hearth 

Heinous 

History 

Horizon 

Hosts 

Illustrate 

Impious 

Incomparable 

Inexplicable 

Indissoluble 

Indisputable 

Inquiry 

Interested 



12 


UTTERANCE 




Irrevocable 


Often 


Root 


Italic 


Parent 


Rule 


Jocund 


Pianist 


Sacrifice 


Juvenile 


Precedence 


Sacrilegious 


Laboratory 


Precedent 


Satire 


Lamentable 


Prelude 


Satyr 


Launch 


Pretty 


Secretary 


Laundry 


Process 


Simultaneous 


Library 


Profile 


Sinecure 


Literature 


Progress 


Sixth 


Matron 


Pronunciation 


Sixth's 


Memoir 


Prophet 


Squalor 


Mischievous 


Quinine 


Synod 


Misconstrue 


Raillery 


Therefore 


Municipal 


Rapine 


Tomato 


Museum 


Recess 


Vagary 


Neuralgia 


Recitative 


Vase 


Nominative 


Referable 


Visor 


Obligatory 


Rise (verb) 


Which 


Oblique 


Rise (noun) 


Wound 


Octavo 


Room 






UTTERANCE 





Utterance is the production of voice. 

There are two modes of utterance used in public speaking: 
EXPULSIVE and EXPLOSIVE. 

Expulsive Utterance is the mode whereby the air is 
impelled over the vocal bands evenly, steadily. It expresses 
self-control and mental poise. 

Ccesar. I could be well moved, if I were as you ; 

If I could pray to move, prayers would move me : 



QUALITIES OF VOICE 13 



But I am constant as the northern star, 

Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality 

There is no fellow in the firmament. 

The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks ; 

They are all fire, and everyone doth shine ; 

But there's but one in all doth hold his place. 

Explosive Utterance is the mode whereby, the air is 
impelled over the vocal bands percussively, abruptly. It ex- 
presses excitement and lack of self-control and of mental poise. 

Octavius. Come, Antony ; away ! — 
Defiance, traitors, hurl we in your teeth : 
If you dare fight to-day, come to the field ; 
If not, when you have stomachs. 

Cassius. Why, now, blow wind, swell billow, and swim bark ! 
The storm is up, and all is on the hazard. 

Macduff. Awake, awake ! 
Ring the alarum-bell. — Murder and treason ! — 
Banquo and Donalbain ! — Malcolm ! — awake ! — 
Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, 
And look on death itself ! Up, up, and see 
The great doom's image ! — Malcolm ! Banquo ! — 
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, 
To countenance this horror. Rincr the bell. 



QUALITIES OF VOICE 

Deepest tones vibrate in the chest. Singers tell us that they 
can sometimes feel their high tones vibrating in the skull 
near the forehead. Now, while neither all the vibrations of the 



14 QUALITIES OF VOICE 



lowest tones are confined to the chest, nor all the highest tones 
to the upper part of the skull, these are the centres where the 
vibrations are strongest. 

According to the location of the vibratory centres we name 
the qualities of voice reverberating therein. 

There are three qualities of voice : HEAD QUALITY, ORO- 
TUND QUALITY, and PECTORAL QUALITY. 

Head Quality is the tone produced when the vibratory 
centre is the head. It expresses tenderness and persuasiveness. 

Portia. I pray you, tarry : pause a day or two 
Before you hazard ; for, in choosing wrong, 
I lose your company : therefore forbear awhile. 
There's something tells me, but it is not love, 
I would not lose you ; and you know yourself, 
Hate counsels not in such a quality. 
But lest you should not understand me well, — 
And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought, — 
I would detain you here some month or two, 
Before you venture for me. I could teach you 
How to choose right, but I am then forsworn ; 
So will I never be ; so may you miss me * 
But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin, 
That I had been forsworn. 

The tendency of any emotion which causes a tension of the 
physical system, as anger or fright or sudden joy, will be toward 
head-tone. 

Pindarus. Fly further off, my lord, fly further off ! 
Mark Antony is in your tents, my lord ! 
Fly, therefore, noble Cassius, fly far off ! 

Cinna. Liberty ! Freedom ! Tyranny is dead ! 
Run hence, proclaim, cry it about the streets. 



QUALITIES OF VOICE 15 



Cassius. Some to the common pulpits, and cry out 
" Liberty, freedom, and enfranchisement ! " 

Brutus. People, and senators ! be not affrighted ; 
Fly not ; stand still : — ambition's debt is paid. 

Orotund Quality is the tone produced when the vibratory- 
centre is the mouth. It has a fullness and resonance lacking 
in head quality and is the most deserving of cultivation by the 
public speaker. It expresses dignity and strength. 

Antofiy. This was the noblest Roman of them all. 
All the conspirators, save only he ; 
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar ; 
He only, in a general honest thought 
And common good to all, made one of them. 
His life was gentle, and the elements 
So mix'd in him that nature might stand up 
And say to all the world, "This was a man ! " 

PECTORAL Quality is the tone produced when the vibra- 
tory centre is the chest. It expresses awe. It is seldom used 
except in dramatic selections and need not be cultivated except 
to increase the range and flexibility of voice. 

Casta. What night is this ! 
\Yho ever knew the heavens menace so? 
Are you not moved, when all the sway of earth 
Shakes like a thing unfirm? O Cicero, 
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds 
Have rived the knotty oaks, and I have seen 
The ambitious ocean swell and rage and foam, 
To be exalted with the threatening clouds : 
But never till to-night, never till now, 
Did I go through a tempest dropping fire. 
Either there is a civil strife in heaven, 
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods, 
Incenses them to send destruction. 



1 6 STRESS 

STRESS 

STRESS is to utterance what accent is to the word. 

There are three kinds of stress : INITIAL, FINAL, and THOR- 
OUGH. 

INITIAL STRESS falls on the first part of the utterance. It 
expresses excitement. 

Brutus. Sirrah Claudius ! 
Fellow thou, awake ! 
Varro. My lord? 
Claudius. My lord? 

Brutus. Why did you so cry out, sirs, in your sleep? 
Claudius. 






r , >■ Did we, my lord? 

Varro. ) J 

Brutus. Ay : saw you any thing? 

Varro. No, my lord, I saw nothing. 

Claudius. Nor I, my lord. 

Brutus. Go and commend me to my brother Cassius ;. 
Bid him set on his powers betimes before, 
And we will follow. 

Final Stress falls on the last of the utterance, 
presses hate and resolution. 

Shylock. I'll have my bond ; speak not against my bond : 
I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond. 
Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause ; 
But since I am a dog, beware my fangs : 
The Duke shall grant me justice. I do wonder, 
Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond 
To come abroad with him at his request. 

Antonio. I pray thee, hear me speak. 

Shylock. I'll have my bond ; I will not hear thee speak : 
I'll have my bond ; and therefore speak no more. 



17 



THOROUGH Stress is even throughout the utterance, 
expresses self-control and mental poise. 

Ccesar. Men are flesh and blood, and apprehensive ; 

Yet in the number I do know but one 

That unassailable holds on his rank, 

Unshaked of motion : and that I am he, 

Let me a little show it, even in this ; 

That I was constant Cimber should be banish'd, 

And constant do remain to keep him so. 



VOLUME 

VOLUME OF VOICE can be measured only approximately. 
But the terms SOFT, MEDIUM, and LOUD are useful in analysis 
and criticism. The volume of voice will depend on the inten- 
sity of the emotion seeking expression. 

SOFT 

Lady Macbeth. He is about it : 
The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms 
Do mock their charge with snores : 
I have drugged their possets, 
That death and nature do contend about them, 
Whether they live or die. 

MODERATE 

Duke Senior. Now, my co- mates and brothers in exile, 
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet 
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods 
More free from peril than the envious court? 
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam, 
The seasons' difference, — as the icy fang 
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind, 
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body, 
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say 
"This is no flattery" — these are counsellors 
That feelingly persuade me what I am. 



18 



LOUD 

Gratiano. O, be thou damn'd, inexorable dog ! 
And for thy life let justice be accus'd. 
Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith, 
To hold opinion with Pythagoras, 
That souls of animals infuse themselves 
Into the trunks of men. 

.... for thy desires 
Are wolvish, bloody, starv'd, and ravenous. 



TIME 



As in the case of volume of voice, rate of time can be meas- 
ured only in relative terms : SLOW, MODERATE, FAST. The 
rate of time is dependent on the degree of excitement or de- 
pression of the emotion. 

SLOW 

Brutus. Whether we shall meet again I know not. 
Therefore our everlasting farewell take : 
For ever, and for ever, farewell, Cassius ! 
If we do meet again, why, we shall smile ; 
If not, why then, this parting was well made. 

Cassius. For ever, and for ever, farewell, Brutus ! 
If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed ; 
If not, 'tis true this parting was well made. 

Brutus. Why, then, lead on. O, that a man might know, 
The end of this day's business ere it come ! 
But it sumceth that the day will end, 
And then the end is known. 

MODERATE 

Portia. Soft ! 
The Jew shall have all justice : — Soft ! no haste : — 
He shall have nothing but the penalty. 



INFLECTION 19 



Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh. 
Shed thou no blood ; nor cut thou less nor more, 
But just a pound of flesh. 

FAST 

Lady Macbeth. I hear a knocking 
At the south entry : retire we to our chamber : 
How easy is it then ! Your constancy 
Hath left you unattended. Hark ! More knocking : 
Get on your night gown, lest occasion call us 
And show us to be watchers : be not lost 
So poorly in your thoughts. 



INFLECTION 

INFLECTION is the raising or lowering of the voice. 
There are three principal kinds of inflection : RISING, FALL- 
ING, and CIRCUMFLEX. 

Rising Inflection expresses incompleteness of thought. 
Macbeth. Hath he asked for me? 
Lady Macbeth. Know you not he has? 

Shy lock. He hath an Argosy bound to Tripolis, another to the 
Indies ; I understand, moreover, upon the Rialto, he hath a third at 
Mexico, a fourth for England .... 
Henry. Show men dutiful ? 

.... Seem they grave and learned? 
.... Come they of noble family? 
.... Seem they religious? 

Falling Inflection expresses the conclusion of a thought. 

Henry. Show men dutiful? 

Why, so didst thou : seem they grave and learned ? 
Why, so didst thou : come they of noble family? 
Why, so didst thou : seem they religious? 
Why, so didst thou. 



20 INFLECTION 

Circumflex Inflection is a bend of the voice resulting 
from a combination of the rising and the falling inflections. It 
expresses a double action of the mind, and is often used in 
rhetorical questions. 

Shylock. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, 
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? 

Lady Macbeth. Was the hope drunk 
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? 
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale 
At what it dies so freely? From this time 
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard 
To be the same in thine own act and valour 
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that 
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, 
And live a coward in thine own esteem, 
Letting "I dare not" wait upon " I would," 
Like the poor cat i' the adage? 



SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 

MASSACHUSETTS AND SOUTH CAROLINA 1 
Daniel Webster 

Sir, let me recur to pleasing recollections ; let me indulge in 
refreshing remembrances of the past; let me remind you that, 
in early times, no states cherished greater harmony, both of 
principle and feeling, than Massachusetts and South Carolina. 
Would to God that harmony might again return ! Shoulder to 
shoulder they went through the Revolution, hand in hand, 
they stood round the administration of Washington, and felt 
his own great arm lean on them for support. Unkind feeling, 
if it exist, alienation, and distrust are the growth, unnatural to 
such soils, of false principles since sown. They are the weeds, 
the seeds of which that same great arm never scattered. 

MR. PRESIDENT, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massa- 
chusetts. She needs none. There she is ; behold her, and 
judge for yourself. There is her history; the world knows it 
by heart. The past, at least, is secure. There is Boston and 
Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill; and there they will 
remain forever. . . . And, sir, where American liberty raised 
its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, 
there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its 
original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it; if 
party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and tear it ; if folly , 
and madness, if uneasiness under salutary restraint, shall suc- 
ceed to separate it from that Union, by which alone its existence 
is made sure, it will stand, in the end, by the side of that 
cradle in which its infancy was rocked ; it will stretch forth its 
arm with whatever of vigor it may still retain, over the friends 
who gathered around it; and it will fall at last, if fall it must, 
amid the proudest monuments of its glory, and on the very 
spot of its origin. 

1 By permission of Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, publishers of "The Na- 
tional Edition of the Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster." 



22 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE 1 

Wendell Phillips 

CROMWELL never saw an army till he was forty ; Toussaint 
L'Ouverture never saw a soldier till he was fifty. Cromwell 
manufactured his own army — out of what? Englishmen, — 
the best blood in Europe. Out of the middle class of Eng- 
lishmen, — the best blood of the island. And with it he 
conquered what? Englishmen, — their equals. This man man- 
ufactured his army out of what? Out of what you call the 
despicable race of negroes, debased, demoralized by two 
hundred years of slavery, one hundred thousand of them im- 
ported into the island within four years, unable to speak a 
dialect intelligible even to each other. Yet out of this mixed 
and, as you say, despicable mass he forged a thunder-bolt, and 
hurled it at what? At the proudest blood in Europe, the 
Spaniard, and sent him home conquered ; at the most warlike 
blood in Europe, the French, and put them under his feet; at 
the pluckiest blood in Europe, the English, and they skulked 
home to Jamaica. Now, if Cromwell was a general, at least 
this man was a soldier. .... 

You think me a fanatic, for you read history, not with your 
eyes but with your prejudices. But fifty years hence, when 
Truth gets a hearing, the Muse of history will put Phocion for 
the Greek, Brutus for the Roman, Hampden for England, Fay- 
ette for France, choose Washington as the bright consummate 
flower of our earlier civilization, then, dipping her pen in the 
sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name 
of the soldier, the statesman, the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouver- 
ture. 

1 Reprinted by permission of Lothrop, Lee, and Shepard Company, Boston. 



SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 23 

REPLY TO WALPOLE 

William Pitt 

The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honor- 
able gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged up- 
on me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny. 

But youth is not my only crime ; I am accused of acting a 
theatrical part. A theatrical part may either imply some 
peculiarity of gesture, or a dissimulation of my real sentiments 
and an adoption of the opinions and language of another man. 
In the first sense, the charge is too trifling to be confuted, and 
deserves only to be mentioned that it may be despised. 

But, if any man shall, by charging me with theatrical behav- 
ior, imply that I utter any sentiments but my own, I shall treat 
him as a calumniator and a villain. I shall, on such an occa- 
sion, without scruple, trample upon all those forms with which 
wealth and dignity intrench themselves, nor shall anything but 
age restrain my resentment; age, — which always brings one 
privilege, that of being insolent and supercilious without pun- 
ishment. 

But, with regard to those whom I have offended, I am of 
opinion that, if I had acted a borrowed part, I should have 
avoided their censure ; the heat that offended them was the 
ardor of conviction and that zeal for the service of my country 
which neither hope nor fear shall influence me to suppress. I 
will not sit unconcerned while my liberty is invaded, nor look 
in silence upon public robbery. I will exert my endeavors, at 
whatever hazard, to repel the aggressor and drag the thief to 
justice, whoever may protect him in his villainies, and whoever 
may partake of his plunder. 



24 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 

REGULUS TO THE CARTHAGINIANS 

. Elijah Kellogg 

Calm and unmoved as the marble walls around him, stood 
Regulus, the Roman ! He stretched his arm over the surging 
crowd with a gesture as proudly imperious as though he stood 
at the head of his own gleaming cohorts, ... as he thus ad- 
dressed them : 

" Ye doubtless thought, judging of Roman virtue by your 
own, that I would break my plighted faith, rather than by re- 
turning, and leaving your sons and brothers to rot in Roman 
dungeons, to meet your vengeance. ... If the bright blood 
which feeds my heart were like the slimy ooze that stagnates 
in your veins, I should have remained at Rome, saved my life 
and broken my oath. If, then, you ask why I have come back, 
to let you work your will on this poor body which I esteem but 
as the rags that cover it, — enough reply for you, it is because I 
am a Roman ! 

" Venerable senators, with trembling voices and outstretched 
hands, besought me to return no more to Carthage. The voice 
of a beloved mother, — her withered hands beating her breast, 
her gray hairs streaming in the wind, tears flowing down her 
furrowed cheeks — praying me not to leave her in her lonely 
and helpless old age, is still sounding in my ears. Compared 
to anguish like this, the paltry torments you have in store is as 
the murmur of the meadow brook to the wild tumult of the 
mountain storm. Go ! bring your threatened tortures ! The 
woes I see impending over this fated city will be enough to 
sweeten death, though every nerve should tingle with its agony ! 
I die — but mine shall be the triumph; yours, the untold deso- 
lation." 



SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 25 

HENRY V AT HARFLEUR 

William Shakespeare 
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; 
Or close the wall up with our English dead. 
In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man 
As modest stillness and humility; 
But when the blast of war blows in our ears, 
Then imitate the action of the tiger; 
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, 
Disguise fair nature with hard favored rage ; 
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; 
Let it pry through the portage of the head 
Like the brass cannon ; let the brow o'erwhelm it, 
As fearfully. as doth a galled rock 
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, 
Swilled with the wild and wasteful ocean. 
Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostrils wide, 
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit 
To his full height. Now on, you noblest English, 
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof: 
Fathers, that like so many Alexanders, 
Have in these parts, from morn till even fought, 
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument; 
Be copy now to men of grosser blood, 
And teach them how to war ! And you, good yeomen, 
Whose limbs are made in England, show us here 
The mettle of your pasture ; let us swear 
That you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not: 
For there is none of you so mean and base 
That hath not noble luster in your eye; 
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, 
Straining upon the start: the game's afoot; 
Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge, 
Cry, Heaven for Harry, England, and St. George ! 



26 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 

THE BLACK HORSE AND HIS RIDER 

George Lippard 

It was the 7th of October, 1777. . . . The two flags, this of 
the stars, that of the red cross, tossed amid the smoke of battle, 
. . . and the earth throbbed with the pulsations of a mighty heart. 

Suddenly, Gates and his officers were startled. Along the 
height on which they stood came a rider on a black horse, 
rushing towards the distant battle . . . and lo ! he is gone ; gone 
through those clouds, while his shout echoes over the plains. . . . 

Thus it was all the day long. Wherever that black horse 
and his rider went, there followed victory. At last, towards 
the setting of the sun, the crisis of the conflict came. That 
fortress yonder, on Bemis' Heights, must be won, or the Amer- 
ican cause is lost ! That cliff is too steep — that death is too 
certain. The officers cannot persuade the men to advance. 
But look yonder ! In this moment when all is dismay and 
horror, here crashing on, comes the black horse and his rider. 
. . . And now look ! Now hold your breath, as that black steed 
crashes up that steep cliff. That steed quivers ! He falls ! No ! 
No! Still on, still up the cliff, still on towards the fortress. 
The rider turns his face and shouts, " Come on, men of Quebec ! 
come on ! " That call is needless. Already, the bold riflemen 
are on the rock. . . . And there in the gate of the fortress, as the 
smoke clears away, stands the black horse and his rider. That 
steed falls dead, pierced by a hundred balls ; but his rider . . . 
lifts up his voice and shouts afar to Horatio Gates waiting 
yonder in his tent, " Saratoga is won ! " As that cry goes up 
to heaven, he falls with his leg shattered by a cannon ball. 

Who was the rider of the black horse? Do you not guess 
his name? Then bend down and gaze on that shattered limb; 
and you will see that it bears the mark of a former wound. 
That wound was received in the storming of Quebec. The 
rider of the black horse was Benedict Arnold. 



SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 27 

RIENZI TO THE ROMANS 

Mary Russell Mitford 
I COME not here to talk. You know too well 
The story of our thralldom. We are slaves ! 

. . . Slaves to a horde 
Of petty tyrants, feudal despots, lords, . . . 
Strong in some hundred spearmen ; only great 
In that strange spell, — a name ! 

Each hour dark fraud, 
Or open rapine, or protected murder, 
Cries out against them. But this very day, 
An honest man, my neighbor, — there he stands, — 
Was struck — struck like a dog, by one who wore 
The badge of Ursini ! because, forsooth, 
He tossed not high his ready cap in air, 
Nor lifted up his voice in servile shouts, 
At sight of that great ruffian ! Be we men, 
And suffer such dishonor? Men, and wash not 
The stain away in blood? Such stains are common. 
I have known deeper wrongs. I that speak to ye, 
I had a brother once — a gracious boy, 
Full of all gentleness, of calmest hope, 
Of sweet and quiet joy ; . . . How I loved 
That gracious boy ! Younger by fifteen years, 
Brother at once and son ! ... In one short hour 
That pretty, harmless boy was slain ! . . . . 

Yet this is Rome 
That sat on her seven hills, and from her throne 
Of beauty ruled the world ! And we are Romans. 
Why in that elder day, to be a Roman 
Was greater than a king ! And once again, — 
Hear me, ye walls that echoed to the tread 
Of either Brutus ! Once again, I swear 
The eternal city shall be free. 



28 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 

REPLY TO MR. CORRY l 

Henry Grattan 

Has the gentleman done? Has he completely done? He was 
unparliamentary from the beginning to the end of his speech. 
There was scarce a word that he uttered that was not a viola- 
tion of the privileges of the House; but I did not call him to 
order. Why? Because the limited talents of some men render 
it impossible for them to be severe without being unparliament- 
ary; but, before I sit down, I shall show him how to be severe 
and parliamentary at the same time. 

The right honorable gentleman has called me an "un- 
impeached traitor." I ask, why not traitor unqualified by an 
epithet? I will tell him; it was because he dare not. It was 
the act of a coward who raises his arm to strike, but has not the 
courage to give the blow. I will not call him villain, because 
it is unparliamentary, and he is a privy counselor. I will not 
call him fool, because he happens to be Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer; but I say he is one who has abused the privileges of 
Parliament and freedom of debate, to the uttering of language 
which, if spoken out of the House, I should answer with a blow. 

I have returned to refute a libel, as false as it is malicious, 
given to the public under the appellation of a report of the 
committee of the Lords. Here I stand, ready for impeachment 
or trial. I dare accusation. I defy the honorable gentlemen ; 
I defy the government; I defy the whole phalanx; let them 
come forth. I tell the ministers I will neither give them quarter 
nor take it. I am here to lay the shattered remains of my 
constitution on the floor of this house, in defense of the liber- 
ties of my country. 

1 From Goodrich's British Eloquence. Reprinted by permission of the publishers,. 
Harper and Brothers, New York and London. 



SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 29 

OPPORTUNITY J 

Edward Rowland Sill 
This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream : — 
There spread a cloud of dust along a 

plain ; 
And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged 
A furious battle, and men yelled, and 

swords 
Shocked upon swords and shields. A 

prince's banner 
Wavered, then staggered backward, 

hemmed by foes. 
A craven hung along the battle's edge 
And thought, " Had I a sword of keener 

steel — 
That blue blade that the king's son 

bears, — but this 
Blunt thing — !" he snapt and flung itfrom 

his hand, 
And lowering crept away and left the 

field. 
Then came the king's son, wounded, sore 

bestead, 
And weaponless, and saw the broken sword, 
Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand, 
And ran and snatched it, and with battle- 
shout 
Lifted afresh, he hewed his enemy down, 
And saved a great cause that heroic day. 

1 By permission of and special arrangement with Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, and 
Company, the authorized publishers of Sill's writings. 



30 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 

VICTOR OF MARENGO i 
Anonymous 

NAPOLEON was sitting in his tent. Before him lay the map 
of Italy. He took four pins, stuck them up, measured, moved 
the pins, and measured again. " Now," said he, "that is right. 
I will capture him there." . . . And the finger of the child of 
destiny pointed to Marengo. . . . But God thwarted Napoleon's 
schemes . . . and the well-planned victory of Napoleon became 
a terrible defeat. ... In the corps was a drummer boy, a 
gamin whom Desaix had picked up in the streets of Paris. 

As the column halted, Napoleon shouted to him: "Beat a 
retreat." The boy did not stir. "Gamin, beat a retreat!" The 
boy grasped his drumsticks, stepped forward and said: "O 
sire, I don't know how. Desaix never taught me that. But I 
can beat a charge. Oh ! I can beat a charge that would make 
the dead fall in line. I beat that charge at the Pyramids once, 
and I beat it at Mt. Tabor, and I beat it again at the Bridge of 
Lodi, and, oh ! may I beat it here? " 

Napoleon turned to Desaix: "We are beaten; what shall 
we do? " " Do? Beat them ! There is time to win a victory 
yet. Up ! gamin, the charge ! Beat the old charge of Mt. 
Tabor and Lodi!" A moment later the corps, following the 
sword gleam of Desaix, and keeping step to the furious roll of 
the gamin's drum, swept down on the host of Austria. . . . 

Desaix fell at the first volley, but the line never faltered. 
And, as the smoke cleared away, the gamin was seen in front of 
the line, marching right on and still beating the furious charge. 

To-day men point to Marengo with wonderment. They 
laud the power and foresight that so skillfully planned the 
battle ; but they forget that Napoleon failed, and that a gamin 
of Paris put to shame the chird of destiny. 

1 " See Napoleon and His Marshals " by J. T. Headley, published by Baker and 
Scribner, New York City, 1846. 



SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 31 

CATO'S SOLILOQUY ON IMMORTALITY 1 
Joseph Addison 
It must be so. — Plato, thou reasonest well ! 
Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire 
This longing after immortality? 
Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror, 
Of falling into naught? Why shrinks the soul 
Back on herself, and startles at destruction? 
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us ; 
'Tis heaven itself, that points out a hereafter, 
And intimates eternity to man. 
Eternity ! — thou pleasing dreadful thought ! 
Through what variety of untried being, 
Through what new scenes and changes must we pass ! 
The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me; 
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it. 
Here will I hold. If there's a Power above us, — 
And that there is, all Nature cries aloud 
Through all her works, — he must delight in virtue. 
And that which he delights in must be happy. 
But when? or where? This world was made for Caesar. 
I'm weary of conjectures, — this must end them. 
Thus am I doubly armed. My death and life, 
My bane and antidote, are both before me. 
This in a moment brings me to my end ; 
But this informs me I shall never die. 
The soul, secure in her existence, smiles 
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point. 
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself 
Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years; 
But thou shalt nourish in immortal youth, 
Unhurt amid the war of elements, 
The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds. 

'From Addison's drama, "Cato." 



32 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 

THE AMERICAN FISHERIES 1 
Edmund Burke 
As to the wealth which the colonies have drawn from the 
sea by their fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened at 
your bar. And pray, Sir, what in the world is equal to it? 
Pass by the other parts, and look at the manner in which the 
people of New England have of late carried on the whale fish- 
ery. While we follow them among the tumbling mountains of 
ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen re- 
cesses of Hudson Bay and Davis Straits, while we are look- 
ing for them beneath the Arctic Circle, we hear that they have 
pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, that they are at 
the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen Serpent of the 
South. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and roman- 
tic an object for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage 
and resting place in the progress of their victorious industry. 
Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them than the 
accumulated winter of both the poles. We know that while 
some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the 
coast of Africa, others run the longitude and pursue their 
gigantic game along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is 
vexed by their fisheries. No climate that is not witness to their 
toils. Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of 
France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of English enter- 
prise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry 
to the extent to which it has been pushed by this recent 
people — a people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, 
and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood. 

1 From " On Conciliation with America." 



SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 33 

THE MAN WHO WEARS THE BUTTON 1 
John Mellen Thurston 

SOMETIMES in passing along the street I meet a man who, 
in the left lapel of his coat, wears a little, plain, modest, unas- 
suming bronze button. The coat is often old and rusty; the 
face above it seamed and furrowed by the toil and suffer- 
ing of adverse years; perhaps beside it hangs an empty sleeve, 
or below it stumps a wooden peg. But when I meet the man 
who wears that button I doff my hat and stand uncovered in his 
presence — yea ! to me the very dust his weary foot has pressed 
is holy ground, for I know that man, in the dark hour of the 
nation's peril, bared his breast to the hell of battle to keep the 
flag of our country in the Union sky. . . . 

What mighty men have worn this same bronze button ! 
Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Logan, and a hundred more, whose 
names are written on the title-page of deathless fame. Their 
glorious victories are known of men ; the history of their coun- 
try gives them voice ; the white light of publicity illuminates 
them for every eye. But there are thousands who, in humbler 
way, no less deserve applause. How many knightliest acts of 
chivalry were never seen beyond the line or heard of above the 
roar of battle ! . . 

God bless the men who wear the button. They pinned the 
stars of Union in the azure of our flags with bayonets, and made 
atonement for a nation's sin in blood. They took the negro 
from the auction-block and at the altar of emancipation crowned 
him — citizen. They supplemented " Yankee Doodle " with 
" Glory Hallelujah," and Yorktown with Appomatox. Their 
powder woke the morn of universal freedom and made the 
name " American" first in all the earth. To us their memory 
is an inspiration and to the future it is hope. 

1 From an address delivered at the annual banquet of the Michigan Club at De- 
troit, February 21, 1890. Reprinted by permission of Hon. John M. Thurston. 

LOFC. 



34 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 

CHARACTER OF CHARLES I* 

Thomas Bablngton' Macaulay 

The advocates of Charles, like the advocates of other male- 
factors against whom overwhelming evidence is produced, gen- 
erally decline all controversy about the facts, and content them- 
selves with calling testimony to character. He had so many 
private virtues ! . . . And what, after all, are the virtues 
ascribed to Charles? A religious zeal, not more sincere than 
that of his son, and fully as weak and narrow-minded, and a 
few of the ordinary household decencies which half the tomb- 
stones in England claim for those who lie beneath them. A 
good father ! A good husband ! Ample apologies indeed for 
fifteen years of persecution, tyranny, and falsehood ! 

We charge him with having broken his coronation oath ; 
and we are told that he kept his marriage vow. We accuse 
him of having given up his people to the merciless inflictions 
of the most hot-headed and hard-hearted of prelates ; and the 
defence is, that he took his little son on his knee and kissed 
him ! We censure him for having violated the articles of the 
Petition of Right, after having, for good and valuable consider- 
ation, promised to observe them; and we are informed that he 
was accustomed to hear prayers at six o'clock in the morning ! 
It is to such considerations as these, together with his Vandyke 
dress, his handsome face, and his peaked beard, that he owes, we 
verily believe, most of his popularity with the present generation. 

For ourselves, we own that we do not understand the com- 
mon phrase, " a good man, but a bad king." We can as easily 
conceive a good man and an unnatural father, or a good man 
and a treacherous friend. We cannot in estimating the char- 
acter of an individual, leave out of our consideration his con- 
duct in the most important of all human relations ; and if in 
that relation we find him to have been selfish, cruel, and de- 
ceitful, we shall take the liberty to call him a bad man in spite 
of all his temperance at table and all his regularity at chapel. 

1 From the essay on Milton. 



SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 35 

A VISION OF WAR 1 

Robert Green Ingersoll 

The past rises before me like a dream. Again we are in the 
great struggle for national life. . . . We are with the soldiers 
when they enlist in the great army of freedom. . . . 

We see them all as they march proudly away under the 
flaunting flags, keeping time to the grand, wild music of war — 
. . . through the towns and across the prairies — down to the 
fields of glory, to do and to die for the eternal right. 

We go with them, one and all. We are by their side on all 
the gory fields — in all the hospitals of pain —on all the weary 
marches. We stand guard with them in the wild storm and 
under the quiet stars. We are with them in ravines running 
with blood, in the furrows of old fields. We are with them be- 
tween contending hosts, unable to move, wild with thirst, the 
life blood ebbing slowly away among the withered leaves. We 
see them pierced by balls and torn with shells, in the trenches, 
by forts, and in the whirlwind of the charge, where men be- 
come iron, with nerves of steel. 

We are at home when the news comes that they are dead. 
We see the maiden in the shadow of her first sorrow. We see 
the silvered head of the old man bowed with the last grief. . . . 

These heroes are dead. They died for liberty — they died 
for us. They are at rest. They sleep -in the land they made 
free, under the flag they rendered stainless. . . . Earth may run 
red with other wars ; they are at peace. In the midst of battle, 
in the roar of conflict, they found the serenity of death. I 
have one sentiment for soldiers living and dead : cheers for the 
living; tears for the dead. 

1 From " Prose-Poems and Selections from the Writings of Robert G. Ingersoll." 
Reprinted by permission of the publisher, C. P. Farrell, New York City. 



36 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 

THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC 1 

Chauncey Mitchell Depew 

To the Army of the Potomac belongs the unique distinction 
of being its own hero. It fought more battles and lost more in 
killed and wounded than all the others ; it shed its blood like 
water to teach incompetent officers the art of war, and political 
tacticians the folly of their plans ; but it was always the same 
invincible and undismayed Army of the Potomac. Loyal ever 
to its mission and to discipline, the only sound it gave in pro- 
test of the murderous folly of cabinets and generals was the 
crackling of the bones as cannon-balls ploughed through its 
decimated ranks. It suffered for four years under unparalleled 
abuse, and was encouraged by little praise, but never mur- 
mured. . . . 

When Lincoln and Grant and Sherman, firmly holding be- 
hind them the vengeful passions of the Civil War, put out their 
victorious arms to the South and said, "We are brethren," this 
generous and patriotic army joined in the glad acclaim and 
welcome with their fervent "Amen." Twenty-two years have 
come and gone since you marched down Pennsylvania Avenue 
past the people's representatives, to whom you and your West- 
ern comrades there committed the government you had saved 
and the liberties you had redeemed ; past Americans from 
whose citizenship you had wiped with your blood the only 
stain, and made it the proudest of earthly titles. Call the roll. 
The names reverberate from earth to heaven. " All present or 
accounted for." Here the living answer for the dead, there the 
spirits of the dead answer for the living. As God musters 
them out on earth, he enrolls them above, and as the Republic 
marches down the ages, accumulating power and splendor with 
each succeeding century, the van will be led by the Army of 
the Potomac. 

1 Reprinted by permission of Hon. Chauncey M. Depew. 



SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 37 

DEFENSE BEFORE AGRIPPA 1 
Saint Paul 
I THINK myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer 
for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof 
I am accused ; especially because I know thee to be expert 
in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. . . . 
My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among 
mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews. . . . And 
now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of 
God unto our fathers : unto which promise our twelve tribes, 
constantly serving God day and night, hope to come. . . . Why 
should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God 
should raise the dead? I verily thought with myself, that I 
ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Naz- 
areth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem : and many of the 
saints did I shut up in prison, and when they were put to death, 
I gave my voice against them, and being exceedingly mad 
against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. 
Whereupon as I went to Damascus, . . . O king, I saw in the 
way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun. . . . 
And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speak- 
ing unto me, and saying, . . . " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou 
me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goad." And I said, 
" Who art thou, Lord? " And be said, " I am Jesus whom thou 
persecutest. But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have ap- 
peared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a 
witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those 
things in the which I will appear unto thee." . . . Having 
therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, wit- 
nessing both to small and great, saying none other things than 
those which the prophets and Moses did say should come : 
That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that 
should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the 
people, and to the Gentiles. 

1 Recorded by Saint Luke in Acts, XXVI. 



38 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 

A PLEA FOR FORCE 1 

John Mellen Thurston 

Mr. PRESIDENT, there is only one action possible. . . . We 
cannot intervene and save Cuba without the exercise of force, 
and force means war; war means blood. . . . But it will 
be God's force. When has a battle for humanity and liberty 
ever been won except by force? What barricade of wrong, 
injustice, and oppression has ever been carried except by 
force? 

Force compelled the signature of unwilling royalty to the 
great Magna Charta; force put life into the Declaration of In- 
dependence and made effective the Emancipation Proclamation ; 
force beat with naked hands upon the iron gateway of the 
Bastile and made reprisal in one awful hour for centuries of 
kingly crime ; force waved the flag of revolution over Bunker 
Hill and marked the snows of Valley Forge with blood-stained 
feet; force held the broken line at Shiloh, climbed the flame- 
swept hill at Chattanooga, and stormed the clouds on Lookout 
Heights ; force marched with Sherman to the sea, rode with 
Sheridan in the valley of the Shenandoah, and gave Grant vic- 
tory at Appomatox ; force saved the Union, kept the stars in 
the flag, made " niggers " men. The time for God's force has 
come again. Let the impassioned lips of American patriots 
once more take up the song: 

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, 
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me, 
As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
For God is marching on. 

1 From a speech delivered in the Senate of the United States, March 24, 1898. 
Reprinted by permission of Hon. John M. Thurston. 



SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 39 

AT THE TOMB OF NAPOLEON 1 
Robert Green Ingersoll 

A LITTLE while ago I stood by the grave of the old Napo- 
leon — a magnificent tomb of gilt and gold, fit almost for a dead 
deity — and gazed upon the sarcophagus of rare and nameless 
marble, where rest at last the ashes of that restless man. I 
leaned over the balustrade and thought of the career of the 
greatest soldier of the modern world. . . . 

I thought of the orphans and widows he had made, of the 
tears that had been shed for his glory, and of the only woman 
who ever loved him, pushed from his heart by the cold hand 
of ambition. And I said : " I would rather have been a French 
peasant and worn wooden shoes. I would rather have lived in 
a hut with a vine growing over the door, and the grapes grow- 
ing purple in the amorous kisses of the autumn sun. I would 
rather have been that poor peasant, with my loving wife by my 
side, knitting as the day died out of the sky, with my children 
upon my knees and their arms about me, I would rather have 
been that man, and gone down to the tongueless silence of the 
dreamless dust, than to have been that imperial impersonation 
of force and murder, known as Napoleon the Great." 

1 From " Prose-Poems and Selections from the Writings of Robert G. Ingersoll. " 
Reprinted by permission of the publisher. C. P. Farrell, New York City. 



40 SELECTIONS FOR PRACTICE 

HAMLET'S INSTRUCTION TO THE PLAYERS 
William Shakespeare 

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you — 
trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it as many of our 
players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor 
do not saw the air too much with your hand, thus ; but use all 
gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, 
whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a tem- 
perance that may give it smoothness. O, it offends me to the 
soul, to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion 
to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings ; 
who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable 
dumb-show and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped 
for o'erdoing Termagant: it out-herods Herod. Pray you, 
avoid it. 

Be not too tame neither, but let our own discretion be your 
tutor; suit the action to the word, the word to the action ; 
with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty 
of nature : for any thing so overdone is from the purpose of 
playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was, and is, to 
hold, as 't were, the mirror up to nature ; to show virtue her 
own feature ; scorn her own image ; and the very age and body 
of the time, his form and pressure. Now, this overdone or 
come tardy off, though it make the unskillful laugh, can not 
but make the judicious grieve ; the censure of the which one, 
must, in your allowance, o'erweigh a whole theater of others. 
O, there be players that I have seen play, and heard others 
praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither 
having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, 
pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed that I have 
thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not 
made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. 



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